cormack12
Gold Member
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/jan/03/games-to-look-forward-to-in-2025-avowed
I’m taken aback by just how fun and breezy it is, given that it has been spun off the somewhat stuffier computer RPG Pillars of Eternity. Entering the game’s colour-saturated world, Eora, I explore a luscious overgrown cavern with my alarmingly athletic mage, and find myself leaping across chasms and climbing rock faces without breaking a sweat.
“I think players are going to be really pleased with how fun the combat feels, moment to moment,” says game director Carrie Patel. “We wanted to take the momentum and sense of impact from more action-forward games, and add that player-driven progression and choice from our RPG roots.”
Where Bethesda approaches fantasy with a furrowed brow, Obsidian opts for a more irreverent tone. Its banter levels land somewhere between Guardians of the Galaxy and 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons film – which will be off-putting for people for whom the Avengers style of dialogue has not so much soured as entirely curdled. It’s the companions and their personalities that will make or break it.
“We’re really excited for players to meet the companions that we built for them,” says Patel. “We had a lot of fun building these characters out and trying to develop interesting moments between them. As you move through the world, they’ll talk to each other, giving you time to get to know them, and also to see them get to know each other.”
In many ways what I see here is less Diet Skyrim and more Skyrim Zero – not so overindulgent and without the dodgy aftertaste. With its elements of Uncharted and Mass Effect, it’s a refreshingly jovial take on the familiar fantasy setting.
I’m taken aback by just how fun and breezy it is, given that it has been spun off the somewhat stuffier computer RPG Pillars of Eternity. Entering the game’s colour-saturated world, Eora, I explore a luscious overgrown cavern with my alarmingly athletic mage, and find myself leaping across chasms and climbing rock faces without breaking a sweat.
“I think players are going to be really pleased with how fun the combat feels, moment to moment,” says game director Carrie Patel. “We wanted to take the momentum and sense of impact from more action-forward games, and add that player-driven progression and choice from our RPG roots.”
Where Bethesda approaches fantasy with a furrowed brow, Obsidian opts for a more irreverent tone. Its banter levels land somewhere between Guardians of the Galaxy and 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons film – which will be off-putting for people for whom the Avengers style of dialogue has not so much soured as entirely curdled. It’s the companions and their personalities that will make or break it.
“We’re really excited for players to meet the companions that we built for them,” says Patel. “We had a lot of fun building these characters out and trying to develop interesting moments between them. As you move through the world, they’ll talk to each other, giving you time to get to know them, and also to see them get to know each other.”
In many ways what I see here is less Diet Skyrim and more Skyrim Zero – not so overindulgent and without the dodgy aftertaste. With its elements of Uncharted and Mass Effect, it’s a refreshingly jovial take on the familiar fantasy setting.
